Tuesday, July 23, 2013

San Diego Comic Con 2013 Write-Up

Looking back at the show and it all seems like a crazy blur. I’d hard
to believe it’s over as I was waiting for it to happen since late January.

Wednesday

Nice and smooth direct flight to San Diego. I was very impressed that when we
got to the hotel around 1pm and were told our room was ready. We headed
downtown using the extremely convenient shuttle system, which we took advantage
of throughout the con. We picked up our tickets with relative ease and had to
wait until 6pm for the show to open.

Unlike the Toronto Fan Expo, the SDCC is better organized
and allows entrance to its exhibitor area through multiple entry points. It
wasn’t long before the floor started to get really busy. I was lucky enough to
get my hands on some LEGO exclusive sets. I also passed along some of my
daughter’s art to Art Baltazar who draws Tiny Titans and Superman Family
Adventures. He was a great guy with an infectious spirit of fun. He really
liked Claire’s drawings and drew a cool Raven sketch for her.

That night, much to my chagrin, I discovered that my two
travel buddies were snorers. I’m a terribly light sleeper, so that didn’t go
well. By about 3am, I pulled a chair and ottoman out onto the balcony. The next
handful of nights, I was smarter about it and we actually put the cot on the
balcony and so I lived like a rockstar under the stars and the swaying palm
trees.

Thursday

The official day one began with joining the masses as the
show opened. After weaseling our way in, I ran over to the Del Rey booth and
signed up for the last spot on the open pitch session. Then over to the IDW
booth for a ticket for the Chris Carter signing on Friday, but they were
already gone. Then I got into the line at the Dark Horse booth to meet Kazuo
Koike, legendary co-creator of Lone Wolf and Cub. He was a kindly, gentleman
with a translator, who smiled when I addressed him as “Koike-San”.

From there it was off to Artists’ Alley, where I commissioned
two sketches from Ron Lim, one of Galactus and one of Silver Surfer, both interacting.
I had told my friends about the idea and they wanted something similar, but we
had no idea we had just both placed our commissions moments apart. We regrouped
to tell each other about it and then walked back over to Lim’s booth, wondering
if he thought we were crazy, but we had a great laugh about it.

I then made my way back across the floor to the Boom!
Studios booth to meet Steven Grant and he autographed a few Punisher comics
that also had Mike Zeck’s signature.

I then proceeded to pace around for then next four hours, waiting
for and practising for my pitch. I buried all the doubts and worries that had
suddenly manifested and had my pitch session with an editor from Del Rey Books
at 5:50pm. My pitch ran just over 3 minutes and I think I answered all of her
questions. I walked away with a good feeling and felt that my story idea had
withstood a legitimate test.

To wrap up the con evening, I attended the Creator
Connections event, which was basically speed dating for artists and writers.
Unfortunately, I didn’t really find a suitable artist, but it was a great
experience and another opportunity for me to test another idea. Most of the
artists, even though they weren’t necessarily good fits, really liked the story
idea, so it was encouraging.

We then went over to the Tin Fish restaurant for a late
dinner and to go over our stories from the busy day.

Friday

Raced over to the IDW booth and got a ticket for the Chris
Carter signing. Then made my way over to the Random House booth and got in line
for the Chuck Palahniuk signing. He was incredible cool and laid back. He
signed my copy of FIGHT CLUB with a clever “To The Best Parole Officer”.

Then went over to the Heroes Initiative book and got a
couple of Marvel Masterworks signed by Roy Thomas. Also met Klaus Janson who
autographed my copy of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and a few other comics.

One of the highlights of the trip was attending the
Superman: The Post-Crisis Era panel which was a great panel reliving that
incredible era. I never really appreciated all the work that editor Mike Carlin
did. The event was capped off as I had the entire creative team (Dan Jurgens,
Mike Carlin, Jerry Ordway, Jon Bogdanove, and Louise Simonson) to sign the cover
to the Death of Superman Omnibus.

Then I raced down to the IDW booth for the Chris Carter
signing. It turned out to be quite the media storm as Gillian Anderson joined
the signing chain, which included Chris Carter, Joe Harris, one of the Lone
Gunman Dean Haglun, and Gillian Anderson. I told Gillian that I was really
enjoying her role on Hannibal
and got to shake Chris Carter’s hand.

We headed back to the hotel early to chill before going to
the Balboa Theatre for Amy Schumer. We had dinner at the hotel and enjoyed a
fine locally brewed beer called Saint Mission Blonde.

Saturday

We eased into our last convention day and I attended the
Urban Fantasy panel with Kevin Hearne, Jim Butcher, Richard Kadrey and others.
Some great research stories, like Hearne’s day-long struggle to determine if a
ghoul is alive or dead while trying to sympathize with his wife who had a
brutal teaching day!

I snagged a Beta Ray Bill sketch by Walt Simonson and got a
lovely Superman sketch by Jerry Ordway at the Heroes Initiative Booth. We had a
great chat with him as he sketched and was really impressed with his humility
and thoughtfulness.

I tried to get an autograph from Neil Degrasse Tyson, but
didn’t have any luck as the ticket raffle was held at 6am. I was able to see
him as he left the Fox booth.

We then attended the Sandman 20th Anniversary panel
with Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, Sam Keith, and J.H. Williams. It was a great
panel with a lot of insight into the creative energies that went into this
comic. It was also nice to see Gaiman give Sam Keith a lot of praise.

After getting comics signed by Gerry Conway, I did a final
loop around the exhibitors area, picking up some minions from Despicable Me 2
for the the kids.

We closed off the SDCC events by attending the HP
Lovecraft’s Necronomicon panel, which was a cool examination of the fabled
text, led by Cody Goodfellow.

We headed over to The Strip Club for cook-it-yourself steaks.
While waiting for our dinner table, we had a beer at Dick’s Last Resort and
watched the cosplayers stream by. I saw a shark and called out “SHARKNADO!” and
she circled a few times before heading at us and devouring Andy. The funniest
part was that my buddy Andy is genuinely terrified by sharks!

I was thrilled that I had accomplished pretty much
everything I wanted to do on my Top 10 To Do List, except for personally
meeting Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Neil Gaiman. The line-ups for the convention
exclusives were crazy, especially the LEGO booth which was completely
overwhelmed the first day and had the line moved outside for the rest of the
con.

I don’t know what I’m going to at work this since I don’t
have to check the SDCC twitter feed! I think though that I may just start
forming random lines in place like the printer room or cafeteria, looking for
exclusives!

That was a helluva week! Glad you got some swag and met some of your celeb list. Good luck with your pitch, I wish I could pitch a few stories! My wife would be jealous that you were in the same room as Neil Gaiman. And I'm jealous you talked to Gillian Anderson!

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